Often I have seen execution to be considered as separate from client interaction during project management. The senior manager/principal or the relationship lead will interact with the client to gather project requirements, understand his expectations, present the deliverable and get necessary feedback. Most often than not, the execution lead or the project lead will not be a part of these meetings.
This may lead to a variety of discrepancies and a lot of unavoidable problems:
- Team does not feel involved in the project. They do not find a ‘sense of ownership’ for the project
- The expectations and feedback should be first hand understood by the execution team as well to avoid the well known ‘Chinese Whisper’ problem
- Many client queries can be best handled by the execution team (ultimately client satisfaction is the bottom line)
- Timelines should be mutually decided based on resource allocated and what is feasible after accounting the buffer time. Mostly, in absence of execution team, account leads tend to promise unrealistic timelines leading to over worked teams and project delays.
- Witnessing the client happiness on a good deliverable is the best motivator for team engagement, period.